Effective (linear) and emergent (nonlinear) mentoring: a practical context for practicing chaos
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to compare the characteristics of mentoring understood as a traditional linear feedback process aimed at effectiveness, with mentoring understood as a nonlinear process, emphasizing emergence.
Design/methodology/approach
Based in systems theory and the nature of feedback processes, differences in the nature of goals, paths, roles, interdependence and communication for each type are explained.
Practical implications
Organizational development specialists and executives may want to consider a reorientation to the way mentoring is conceived in their organization. Effectiveness is for the reproduction of present successes. Emergence is for exponentially broader developmental success in the future.
Originality/value
The paper is conceptual in nature, but is of considerable practical import for organizations and mentoring relationships aspiring to generative learning.
Keywords
Citation
Bokeno, M. (2007), "Effective (linear) and emergent (nonlinear) mentoring: a practical context for practicing chaos", Development and Learning in Organizations, Vol. 21 No. 5, pp. 18-20. https://doi.org/10.1108/14777280710779445
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2007, Emerald Group Publishing Limited